An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Duskmist Court had never been Luo Chen’s intended destination. He had only ended up there because circumstances led him there, and he had no interest in the peace conference in the first place. Now that he had obtained what he wanted, there was no reason to remain, lest he become entangled in a conflict that had nothing to do with him. So, before the attention drawn by his earlier high-profile actions could develop into further trouble, he quietly departed with his companions.

There was the matter of the two bottles of soul essence Fu Chaosheng had promised, along with the other items they had discussed, but those could be delivered once he reached the Central Continent. In any case, none of it was particularly urgent. The bottle he had already gotten contained enough soul essence to refine a large amount of Great Soul Pills, and he could begin as soon as he obtained the necessary auxiliary materials.

In fact, he would not even need to search for those materials himself. The Northern Sea was so vast that gathering everything by himself might have taken years that were far better spent on cultivation. Therefore, Luo Chen had used his leverage on Fu Chaosheng to secure access to the Heaven Origin Trade Alliance’s extensive commercial network. Their agreement included a very important part that said Fu Chaosheng would procure the necessary resources on his behalf.

The ”necessary resources” extended far beyond the ingredients for a single pill. He had also requested the ingredients needed to refine the fourth-tier Grand Origin Pill—just as in the case of the Great Soul Pill, if he had tried to gather everything on his own, it would have taken an unimaginable amount of time. More importantly, he had also asked Fu Chaosheng to collect fire-attribute cultivation techniques, secret arts, spell manuals, as well as any other related resources he could find. Those were his main priority, but he was equally willing to purchase any worthwhile physique cultivation resources that became available.

Naturally, none of this came without a price. Fu Chaosheng was acting as a middleman, not a benefactor, and Luo Chen would pay out of his own pocket for everything the alliance obtained. Of course, Fu Chaosheng had no concerns about whether he could afford it. During the Sage gathering at Origin Convergence Palace, Luo Chen had casually spent 100 million spirit stones as though the sum were nothing more than pocket change. That display alone spoke volumes about the depth of his wealth.

Beyond securing the cultivation resources he needed, Luo Chen’s negotiations with Fu Chaosheng had also solved the problem of reaching the Central Continent. Rather than crossing the Northern Sea alone, he could travel along the Heaven Origin Trade Alliance’s established routes!

Even with a map, traversing these boundless waters would take up a lot of time, and that was before accounting for the countless dangers lurking along the way. In contrast, the alliance had long since carved out stable trade routes, maintained escorted caravans, and even set up several short-range teleportation formations. With these in place, they could bypass many of the most treacherous regions and natural barriers that would otherwise slow the journey. By traveling with them, Luo Chen could reduce the journey to a small fraction of the time it would normally take.

As for the peace conference between the righteous and devilish factions at Duskmist Court, and whether Old Ghost Nan Qi and the others would fly into a rage after discovering he had fled, none of it concerned him anymore.

Hidden within Black King’s belly, he had settled into rare peace and was devoting his full attention to the beast-hide booklet in his hands. It recorded a fourth-tier fire-attribute core cultivation technique: the Blazing Radiance True Scripture. Surprisingly, the technique was not part of the Heaven Origin Dao Sect’s inheritance. Rather, it was something that Fu Chaosheng had acquired over the years through his own channels. After the two finalized their terms, he sold the technique to Luo Chen for five million spirit stones. The price certainly seemed steep at first glance, but in truth... it was actually a huge discount, the kind of price only offered to good friends. After all, complete fourth-tier cultivation techniques were simply too rare for anyone to haggle over lightly.

The Blazing Radiance True Scripture was not especially profound, but the fact that it was complete made it immensely valuable. Its teachings formed an unbroken path from the Qi Refinement Realm to the Nascent Soul Realm. Interestingly enough, unlike many modern cultivation techniques, this one approached cultivation as a single broad system rather than dividing its contents neatly by realm. With some careful revision, though, it could easily be reorganized into separate chapters for Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and each minor stage thereof. In fact, the technique alone was enough to establish a sect from nothing and train generations of disciples along a complete cultivation path!

For Luo Chen, that completeness was precisely what made it worth studying so carefully. The Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture that Nether Spring had given him was allegedly the greatest fire-attribute cultivation technique in existence, but the copy he possessed contained only the Golden Core Chapter. He had reached Perfected Mastery, and that was what allowed him to continue using it even after becoming a Sage. Nevertheless, no amount of proficiency could change the fact that the technique was incomplete, and that issue continued to trouble him.

In the past, he had been forced to make do with ordinary cultivation techniques such as the Long Spring Art and Wood Ignition because he had no better options. Now that he had become a Sage, however, he could no longer afford to remain so careless about the foundation of his cultivation. He needed a fourth-tier core cultivation technique that truly suited him, and if no such technique existed, he would create one himself.

For that reason, he had asked Fu Chaosheng to collect every fire-attribute cultivation technique he could find, regardless of its tier or whether it was complete or incomplete. Luo Chen had no intention of choosing one and following it as it was. Instead, he planned to do what he’d always done: study the strengths of multiple techniques and use his accumulated achievement points to create a cultivation art that belonged entirely to him.

With that goal in mind, he studied the Blazing Radiance True Scripture while Black King raced across the sea.

Days passed under the unseen cycle of sun and moon, but when he finally closed the beast-hide booklet, his initial excitement had faded into disappointment.

The technique was complete and good enough for all practical purposes, but its teachings lacked the depth he had hoped to find. Even if he achieved Perfected Mastery, it was unlikely to improve his cultivation speed beyond what the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture already offered. More importantly, its explanation of Nascent Soul cultivation was woefully insufficient.

It recorded almost nothing about harmonizing the spirit with heaven and earth, and its instructions merely advised the cultivator to find a secluded location, preferably one positioned above a spirit vein, before releasing the Nascent Soul to perceive the Power of Laws and true principles of heaven and earth. For Luo Chen, who had hoped to gain a clearer understanding of the Nascent Soul Realm and the path that lay ahead, such vague guidance was hardly useful.

Even so, his time had not been entirely wasted. The technique of opening apertures and weaving them into a complete cultivation cycle was still worth studying. He had opened every aperture in his body when he was an Initiate, but in truth, he had never made full use of them. Over the years, they had served mainly as secondary reservoirs for storing spirit energy beyond his sea of qi.

The Blazing Radiance True Scripture, however, recorded that those apertures were part of the cultivation cycle itself to draw in the natural spirit energy through the entire body before refining it. If Luo Chen could adapt that technique and integrate it into the core cultivation technique he intended to create, he would be able to absorb and refine spirit energy even faster.

Useful as that technique was, it was not the only thing in the Blazing Radiance True Scripture that caught Luo Chen’s attention. It also contained two formidable fourth-tier fire-element spells. The first was Fire Phoenix’s Prairie Blaze, a large-scale offensive spell similar in principle to the Azure Yang Great Handprint. Put simply, it was a spell that engulfed a large area in flames. In the hands of a Sage, at full power, it could shatter mountains, split seas, level cities, and even devastate entire countries.

The second spell, Flame Dragon’s Descent, was far more restricted in range, but precisely for that reason, arguably even more dangerous. Its creator had modeled it after the lightning tribulations that descended upon cultivators during their breakthroughs. Whereas Fire Phoenix’s Prairie Blaze overwhelmed everything in a wide sweep, Flame Dragon’s Descent focused all of its destructive force onto a single target. The reduced range did nothing to make it easier to escape. If anything, it made it worse. After all, the defining quality of heavenly tribulation was precisely that once it descended, there was nowhere to run or hide, and the only option left was to withstand it head-on.

To reproduce that effect required far more than simply pouring mana into the spell. The caster first had to gather the ambient fire-attribute spirit energy, then use their divine soul to lock onto the enemy’s aura and follow every movement. Once the flame dragon took shape, it would pursue its target relentlessly and could not be shaken off.

Luo Chen smiled faintly. At the very least, practicing these two spells would give him something to do during the remainder of the journey. I’ll try learning them on my own first. But if I truly can’t manage it, I still have plenty of achievement points to help me reach Beginner proficiency.

***

Dry Ink Mountain rose from the sea, with water surrounding it on all sides. Only a narrow strip of land, a bridge that surfaced and vanished with the tides, connected it to the small island nearby.

From the waters under the mountain’s shadow, an enormous flood dragon slowly raised its head. ”Master, we’ve arrived.”

Black King parted his jaws slightly, and Luo Chen stepped out. His smooth black hair fell loosely down his back, with the upper portion gathered into a simple topknot secured by a wooden hairpin. Then, a tall woman with an arrogant expression on her face and an honest-looking man emerged one after another.

Once they were all ashore, Luo Chen beckoned with one hand, and the enormous flood dragon shrank into a tiny size no larger than a loach before slipping into his sleeve.

Luo Chen studied Dry Ink Mountain before turning to the surrounding waters. The landscape was familiar, yet decades of destruction and change had left it almost unrecognizable. After a moment, he nodded. ”This is indeed the place. The Mo family’s fishery used to be here.”

Heavenjade looked around in surprise. ”How did it become like this? I remember cages covering the sea, and the spirit energy here was fairly abundant.”

Luo Chen’s expression turned wistful. ”It was first caught in the battle between me and the others, then it was struck by the aftermath of a Sage-level battle. It’s amazing enough that the mountain itself survived. What more could we ask for?”